A Few Annigoni Videos

"Like any Italian worth his garlic salt Annigoni can make a tasty omelet..."

Living Grand Masters: Nelson Shanks

I am honored to have met Nelson Shanks, and have learned a lifetime of things in the few brief moments that I was able to watch him paint and receive advice and instruction from him.

A former student of Pietro Annigoni, Nelson is a master of the highest degree, and in portraiture no one even comes close. He is unmatched as a colorist and a painter of flesh, and the ability to pull character out of a pose.

Nelson is the founder of Studio Incamminati in Philadelphia. He lives and works in the area, but also paints in the former studio of Robert Henri in New York and if I'm correct has another studio in London.





If you get a commission to paint the pope's portrait from life at the Vatican, Princess Diana, and several United States Presidents, you just might have made it as a portrait painter.



In my opinion this is the greatest contemporary painting of a nude figure. Seeing it at Forum Gallery in 1998 was my introduction to his work, and I have been in love with it since. It now hangs in the Incamminati office, and I pay a visit to her whenever I'm in Philly.

Living Grand Masters: Lucian Freud

Lucien Freud is the grandson of Sigmund.

Some of my friends will dispute this choice because he diminishes his sitters to grotesque piles of flesh, but the magnitude of his skill and importance can't be denied. He is a master of flesh and of space. There is real power in the paintings whether you like them or not. He is one of the only living painters from the modernist era whose work I personally care for.

This painting sold for $33 million dollars at a Christie's auction. Is it worth $33 million dollars? Not in my opinion. It is the most ever spent on a living artist's work.

Mick Jagger's ex-wife holding a Freud she posed for and bought for over a million British pounds. Worth it? Naaaaa, but it's kind of cool.








Another great video link on Freud here.

Living Grand Masters: Steven Assael

Well, some of the people I deem as "grand masters" I have already listed as teachers. This is where categorization starts to drive me crazy. Steven Assael is undoubtedly one of the great painters of our time, so it won't hurt to do another post for him.

If you've never seen Steve develop a painting it is simply outrageous. At first his technique looks like a very bad idea, and it is very easy to get nervous that he's not going to pull the thing off, but he always does, gloriously. He uses a bright orange, red, or hot pink ground color and uses the surface as a palette. He works unbelievably quickly, slapping and slamming a loaded wet brush as though it were the enemy, but with a totally disinterested expression.

Steve was in his twenties when he painted this. They roped off a section of their apartment to keep everything in the right place.

Still my favorite.




A piece in progress featured in the new American Artist.

Ye Olde Classmates: Nicolas Uribe

I probably learned as much from Nicolas at SVA New York as I did from my instructors. I wrote a little bit about this and posted some of his old student paintings on Cefaloblog. I rarely have met a student so serious about his work. Contrary to what most people assume by looking at his work, there is nothing weird about Nicolas. He's quiet, well-spoken, and totally nonchalant about most things. As you'll find on his blog, he's not interested either in self-absorbed artspeak or haughty classical ideals. His website seemed to be under construction last time I tried, but maybe you'll have better luck.

I have often debated in defense of Nicolas Uribe's paintings, and have come to realize that his work actually defies many things I profess to believe about art. Yes, the photo is totally present. Yes, they are largely cool, ironic, witty, clever and hip. Why, then, does it stand up to me as great painting? On the surface, the subject matter seems a shield against experience or emotion, but I don't think that's the case. Nicolas loves human skin, and sincerely loves the tactility of representing it in oil paint, and everything else is beside the point. In my opinion it is that impulse above all that drove most of Art History.

Art theory and philosophy aside, Nicolas paints like nobody's business, and I can't stop looking at them over and over again. But he's not merely a copycat or renderer. The thing I probably enjoy most about his work is the exploration in it. He's constantly pushing his own boundaries and looking for ways to challenge himself.

Nicolas is a great draftsman too.

I had never seen someone paint over reproductions of masterpieces before Nicolas, at least not in a well-done and interesting way.

The one above is a long-time favorite of mine.